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Initiative (Buffyverse)
The Initiative is a fictional secret government organization in the television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. History Beginnings The Initiative program was initially established during World War II as the Demon Research Initiative, meant to monitor demon activity and study demon physiology to aid the United States war effort. In 1943, Mr. Fury, an agent of the DRI, forcibly recruited Angel to recapture a T-Class prototype U-boat which housed the results of the Third Reich’s own research on vampires. Angel’s mission was a partial success, as the submarine reached U.S. waters but the documents containing the research were destroyed by Spike. As a result, Angel quickly jumped ship and went underground until the end of the war."Why We Fight" In the following decades, the Demon Research Initiative evolved into the Initiative, led by Maggie Walsh and stationed in an elaborate facility underneath the UC Sunnydale campus. Though on the surface they appeared to be simply containing "Hostile Subterrestrials", they were secretly working on the 314 Project, meant to create cybernetically-enhanced human-demon hybrids as super-soldiers. Additionally, many soldiers, most notably Riley Finn, were secretly fed special performance-enhancing drugs, which would threaten Riley’s life later."Out of My Mind" After the Initiative’s dissolution, Riley mentioned that he had been living in Sunnydale for a few years, indicating that the Initiative had been active in Sunnydale for some time."Buffy vs. Dracula" Sunnydale and Downfall In late 1999, Buffy Summers and the Scooby Gang first came into contact with Initiative commandos, though, as it was Halloween at the time, they initially dismissed them as people in Halloween costumes."Fear Itself" However, when Buffy later came into contact with another commando while on patrol, she began to suspect more was going on."Wild at Heart" Buffy’s old enemy, Spike, was among the vampires and demons captured by the Initiative, who implanted him with a cerebral microchip that rendered him unable to willingly harm or attempt to harm humans without causing him debilitating pain. When Spike escaped the Initiative and attempted to attack Willow Rosenberg, the Initiative went after him and nearly captured both Spike and Willow before Buffy arrived and engaged them in combat, forcing them to retreat and allowing Spike to escape."The Initiative" As he was still being targeted by the Initiative and unable to hunt for blood due to the chip, Spike turned to the Scooby Gang out of desperation, bartering his knowledge of the Initiative in exchange for their protection."Pangs" Eventually, Buffy discovered that Riley, whom she had developed mutual romantic feelings for, was a member of the Initiative himself, and the other Scoobies soon found out as well while dealing with an encroaching apocalypse."Hush""Doomed" Buffy eventually joined the Initiative herself, but her excessive questioning of the organization’s plans and motives, as well as her influence over Riley, began to unsettle Professor Walsh, who attempted to have her killed in action, only to fail. Afterwards, Walsh was murdered by Adam, the first bio-mechanical demonoid created in the 314 Project, who subsequently escaped the facility and set about making an army of similar super-soldiers."The I in Team""Goodbye Iowa" When Willow’s werewolf ex-boyfriend Oz returned to town and was captured by the Initiative, Riley, having been torn between the Initiative and the Scooby Gang since Walsh’s failed attempt on Buffy’s life, finally realized the full extent of the Initiative’s corruption. Witnessing the Initiative willingly conducting brutal experiments on Oz simply because he wasn’t completely human despite Riley vouching for the fact that he wasn’t dangerous, Riley turned his back on them and helped the Scoobies break Oz out of the complex."New Moon Rising" Adam quickly began the final stages of his plan, convincing the vampires and demons of Sunnydale to work together, with many of them allowing the Initiative to capture them. Adam’s plan was simple: he intended to fill the Initiative facilities with demons and then unleash them on the soldiers by unlocking their cells from Professor Walsh’s secret laboratory. Afterward, he and his minions would recover body parts from the slaughter and fashion a new race formed from man, demon, and machine. Knowing that Buffy would be able to even the casualties before being killed herself, Adam recruited Spike to isolate her from her friends, planning to trap her in the facility as well; though Spike briefly succeeded,"The Yoko Factor" he soon let too much information about the plot slip during a subsequent encounter with Buffy, and the group reconciled and set about stopping Adam. To assist him in his plan, Adam created a second biomechanical demonoid from the corpse of the recently slain Forrest Gates and reanimated Professor Walsh and Dr. Angleman as mindless zombies to do so. However, the Scoobies used the powerful enjoining spell to combine their essences and powers within Buffy’s body, allowing her to overpower and destroy Adam. Subsequently, the Scoobies, assisted by Spike, who had been double-crossed by Adam, joined with the Initiative’s soldiers to stop the demon attacks, saving most of them with only 40% casualties amongst the Initiative. With this, the government decided to shut down the Initiative for good, and remove any paper trail of its existence, deeming it and its operations a failure."Primeval" Legacy Following the Initiative’s closure, the Army maintained operations in hunting demons, incorporating many of the trained Initiative soldiers, including Riley Finn. They hunted down demon nests in the United States, as well as foreign countries. The goals of the Army now aligned closely with those of the Slayer: protecting people from demons and preventing demon threats from spreading."Into the Woods" Three years later, while searching for a way to retire Spike’s chip, the ensouled vampire and Buffy visited the remains of the secret base, where they discovered the burned bodies of vampires and demons alike, and were briefly attacked by a demon that survived the breakout before being confronted by military operatives sent by Riley, who removed the chip at Buffy’s request."The Killer in Me" Years later, the Scoobies would compare both the military operation Drextalcorp Recycling TechnologiesThe Long Way Home, Part ThreeThe Long Way Home, Part Four and the treasonous Pandora ProjectCrimes Against Nature to the Initiative. Components Facility Locations *Room 114 *Room 314 *The Armory *The Pit *Secret Laboratory Commanders and Leaders *Mr. Ward: Pentagon Overseeing Committee *Maggie Walsh: Professor *George Haviland: Colonel *McNamara: Colonel *Francis Angleman: Doctor *Jonathan Levinson: Tactical Consultant, only due to a spell Agents and Soldiers *Mr. Fury: 1943 *Angel: 1943, Unwillingly *Riley Finn *Forrest Gates *Graham Miller *Mason *Evan *Willos *Stavros *Dixon *Goodman *Brown *Buffy Summers: Relieved of Duty/Left *Adam Prisoners *Spike *Oz *Tom *Polgara Demon *Two "Warrior demons" *Hostile Six Behind the Scenes *In "Out of Mind, Out of Sight", the invisible schoolgirl Marcie Ross is recruited by two government agents and trained to be an assassin. Whilst it’s never informed that they are definitely part of the Initiative, this would substantiate Riley’s assertion in "Buffy vs. Dracula" that they have been active on Sunnydale for several years prior to the Scoobies encountering them at UCSD. *In the dubious canon comic storyline Haunted (which reveals that Richard Wilkins’s spirit managed to survive his death for a time by possessing vampires and other deceased bodies), the Mayor’s vampire body is briefly captured by the Initiative shortly after graduation, with Wilkins musing that he had no idea a facility like this existed in his town. *The existence of a secret government/corporate organization dealing with the bizarre/supernatural is a recurring theme in Joss Whedon’s works, as seen with SHIELD in Agents of SHIELD, The Conspiracy in Cabin in the Woods, the Blue Gloves in Firefly, Rossum in Dollhouse, and the successors to The Company in Alien Resurrection. Fans theorize that they may all be different branches of the same organization. *In "Primeval," the Initiative base is ordered to be filled in with concrete. As seen in "The Killer in Me," this never happened and no explanation was ever given for this. *The Initiative base appears as a level in the Chaos Bleeds video game where Spike is transported into a replica of the Initiative in The First's hell dimension to face an alternate reality Adam. Appearances ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' *''Lost and Found'' *''Hive Mentality *Take Back the Night'' *"Haunted" *''Note from the Underground, Part Three'' *''Note from the Underground, Part Four'' *''The Long Way Home, Part Three'' *''The Long Way Home, Part Four'' *''Crimes Against Nature'' ''Angel'' Category:Buffy the Vampire Slayer Category:Buffyverse powers Category:Fictional military organizations Category:Fictional intelligence agencies Category:Fictional government investigations of the paranormal Category:Fictional elements introduced in 1999